Cubase SX3 vs. Sonar 4

[headquest]

Breaing in mind that Cubase SX3 costs £570 and Sonar 4 only costs £340 (UK web sites I looked at), then it's not fair to directly comare them in this way ... they are not competing at the same price point.

Considering the £230 difference, for the same price as Cubase SX3 on its own you could alternatively buy Sonar 4 plus one of the following:

- Reason 2.5
- Project 5
- Adobe Audition 1.5
- FL Studio PE
- Orion
- Kontakt
- Absynth
- Various other top-end synths

You get the point. Sonar plus any of these is better than Cubase on its own.

So for anyone considering buying Sonar or Cubase, advice must be given on this basis.

[pitchdrifter]

I bet that the people who say that they dont have problems with cubase are making that up...

of course, you could just not purchase Sonar if you dislike it but I guess trolling is more fun...

Trolling? You managed to miss the subject of this thread.
And I'm not trolling, I spent the last couple days introducing someone who has been a long time sonar user who owns sonar 4 already to SX3, because of the issues I explained above. I'm currently using SX3, but I used a range of non steinberg hosts before that. Whatever does the job best at a given time.

Now if you sad 'my host is better than yours' f**kers (of either side) could get a life, and would start to actually work with either sequencer, it'd be such a relief for this forum. This bullshit is so unprofessional it makes you look like 14 year olds who think their trainers' brand owns the other guys' brand.
Grow up.

[ericj23]

Breaing in mind that Cubase SX3 costs £570 and Sonar 4 only costs £340 (UK web sites I looked at), then it's not fair to directly comare them in this way ... they are not competing at the same price point.

Considering the £230 difference, for the same price as Cubase SX3 on its own you could alternatively buy Sonar 4 plus one of the following:

- Reason 2.5
- Project 5
- Adobe Audition 1.5
- FL Studio PE
- Orion
- Kontakt
- Absynth
- Various other top-end synths

You get the point. Sonar plus any of these is better than Cubase on its own.

So for anyone considering buying Sonar or Cubase, advice must be given on this basis.

all interesting points - but who buys cubase new ????? - mine cost me £160 - £60 for cubase 5.1 from ebay - £100 upgrade to 2 - free upgrade to 3 because of when i got the other upgrade

you see sonar users have no choice but pay the full £300 odd because the liscence is non transferable - it is easily (and freely) transferred by steinberg

so i can pick up sx 2 for £160 (with a day to go) on ebay and pay £100 for the upgrade - well the price is going to be much the same

but if you ever get bored with cubase you get some of your money back - so im afriad you have it mixed up - cubase is the cheaper one

[whyterabbyt]

ericj23 quoth all interesting points - but who buys cubase new ?????

Ummm, Steinberg would hope 'a lot of people'.

I doubt if there are enough legitimate copies of Cubase on eBay to support veryone who want SX3, so that's a bit of an unrealistic way of addressing SX3's higher retail price than S4 Pro; £160 is not what average joe muso pays from SoundControl or whatever. £570 is.

Or in other word, by extension of your argument, Nuendo2 is best cos all them warez kids can pay precisly zero for it?

Just as a point, though, you could pay £40 for Cakewalk Music Creator new, and upgrade to S4 Pro for £240 or S4 Studio for £140. Without the risk of buying an older version of Cubase off eBay that the spod has already upgraded....

[ericj23]

more valid points - but while im sure steinberg hopes that most people will buy a new one there are plenty to be found if youre willing to wait/shop around - probably the same with sonar - companies (who aint buying vat and write it off as a tax expense) might not be bothered but mr hobbyist would be better shopping around

and if its security your worried about there is a buy now cubase score for £65 from a guy with payment protection on ebay - ie no risk what so ever if you use paypal - £300 upgrade to sx 3 - done

and of course the resale thing ,means that while their may be a higher inital outlay the life time cost of the product is roughly the same

so sonar doesnt have any magic extra vst thrown in

[psynus]

In former days I prefered sonar coz it was much more stable than cubase. Nowadays it's just a question of what you've got used to. I'm a cubase user now, but I am sure I could make the same music with sonar if I really wanted to.

[HanafiH]

Nice copy of Cubase, only one owner!

[headquest]

Nice copy of Cubase, only one owner!

Exactly

[baggio]

I know that Abrbiter charge £25.00 to transfer Steinberg products in the UK because they charged me this amount when I purchased Wavelab 2nd hand - so its something to keep in mind.

[ericj23]

I know that Abrbiter charge £25.00 to transfer Steinberg products in the UK because they charged me this amount when I purchased Wavelab 2nd hand - so its something to keep in mind.

thats weird - ive bought two copies of cubase and never been asked to pay to transfer liscences - but still means that any of those 100 % legit copies of cubase on ebay complete with payment protection are still cheaper than sonar

or does somehow buying it new make it better ???

didnt think so - nothing like spending too much money

so we have two stable mature products that are much the same feature wise - so how do you decide which one you want - try thew out - so when are steinberg going to work out some sort of cubase demo ??

becuase I hope that and the price tag doesnt make it a niche semi-pro product - it would be a shame if the competition went out of this deabte now wouldn't it

[baggio]

ericj23 did you deal with Arbiter UK?

[headquest]

Erm... none of that alters the fact that Cubase (new) costs £570, and Sonar (new) costs £340.

If someone wants to sell either program, my question would be "why?" (as with any second-hand purchase).

Especially now, when both products have been upgraded... surely anyone would try the new upgrade rather than ditch the software entirely - unless they are DEEPLY unhappy?

If there are lots of Cubase SX going second hand, that raises more questions for me than it answers, to be honest.

[HanafiH]

If there are lots of Cubase SX going second hand, that raises more questions for me than it answers, to be honest.

Well that's right, because even the most hated copy of Cubase gets you a competitive upgrade to another product.

It's indicative of users who enter the audio software market on a Steinberg product, and then leave it. Permanently.

[ericj23]

If there are lots of Cubase SX going second hand, that raises more questions for me than it answers, to be honest.

Well that's right, because even the most hated copy of Cubase gets you a competitive upgrade to another product.

It's indicative of users who enter the audio software market on a Steinberg product, and then leave it. Permanently.

more fool them - oh wait do you seriously think that people getting soanr for the first time wouldnt be as annoyed with their product - get a grip

but im sure you can imagine how they would feel if they had bought sonar - all that money wasted

of course if you take the competitive upgrade to another product you can then sell your copy of cubase - its the sensible thing to do - probably pay for the cost of transferring

so dive in to cubase - at least you cant get left with a £320 hole in your wallet

[HanafiH]

more fool them - oh wait do you seriously think that people getting soanr for the first time wouldnt be as annoyed with their product - get a grip

but im sure you can imagine how they would feel if they had bought sonar - all that money wasted

of course if you take the competitive upgrade to another product you can then sell your copy of cubase - its the sensible thing to do - probably pay for the cost of transferring

so dive in to cubase - at least you can get left with a £320 hole in your wallet

Currently on ebay uk 21:08 BST 24 Oct 2004:

22 copies of Cubase VST 5 or later (of which 19 SX 1 or later, claimed as new and/or with dongle)

1 Copy Sonar (any version, claimed as new)



And I firmly believe that Ralph Nader will be the next American President! And what a dongle that man has! Oi Vey!